2017 Annual Report

Competitions

REGENERON’S FIRST SCIENCE TALENT SEARCH

The Regeneron Science Talent Search (STS), a programof the Society for Science & the Public, is the nation’s oldest andmost prestigious science and mathematics competition for high school seniors. In 2017, Regeneron became only the third sponsor of the Science Talent Search, following previous sponsors Westinghouse and Intel, with a 10-year, $100million commitment that signifi- cantly increased the awards offered to students and schools. Fromnearly 1,800 applicants, 300 students were named scholars, with each scholar and their school receiving $2,000 apiece. Forty finalists were selected to each receive $25,000 and a trip toWashington, D.C., to compete for $1.8million in awards. During the Science Talent Institute in March, George Yancopoulos (1976 STS), President &Chief Scientific Officer at Regeneron, served as the alumni speaker, challenging the finalists to do good in the world. The finalists shared their research

at the Public Exhibition of Projects at the National Geographic Society, in addition to visiting the National Institutes of Health and the Janelia Research Campus of HowardHughesMedical Institute. The finalists alsomet with their members of Congress on Capitol Hill after attending a special breakfast hosted by Regeneron Founder, President &CEOLeonard Schleifer (1970 STS). Indrani Das, of Oradell, NewJersey, won the $250,000 top prize for her study of a possible approach to treating the death of neurons due to brain injury. Second place and $175,000went to Aaron Yeiser, of Schwenksville, Pennsylvania, who developed amathematical method for solving partial differential equations on complicated geometries. The third- place $150,000winner was ArjunRamani, ofWest Lafeyette, Indiana, for blending themathematical field of graph theory with computer programming to answer questions about networks at faster rates.

Left to right: Frank Sandy, 1954 Science Talent Search alumnus with his grandson Aaron Yeiser, 2017 STS second place winner.

Left to right: Nathaniel Lee, Emily Peterson and Archana Verma are vis- ited by Rep. Thomas Suozzi (NY) at the 2017 Regeneron Science Talent Search Awards Gala.

2017 ANNUAL REPORT | SOCIETY FOR SCIENCE & THE PUBLIC | 13